


Choose your words (there's no antidote)

by sempreme



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: dove_drabbles, Community: dracoharry100, Community: harry100, Cute Teddy Lupin, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Family Dynamics, Family Issues, HP: EWE, Harry grows a beard, Head Auror Harry Potter, Healer Draco Malfoy, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Post-Hogwarts, Slice of Life, did I mention Teddy is the best kid ever, proud of Draco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 18:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10702503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sempreme/pseuds/sempreme
Summary: “Draco said to me you didn’t want to go to bed, that you planned to stay up aaaall night. Is that true?” Harry attempted.Teddy gazed Draco with an annoyed expression.Honestly,this kid.





	Choose your words (there's no antidote)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for:
> 
> ♦ [dracoharry100](dracoharry100.livejournal.com) Challenge #476: _Late_  
>  ♦ [harry100](harry100.livejournal.com) Challenge Prompt #309: _Up All Night_  
>  ♦ [dove_drabbles](http://dove-drabbles.livejournal.com//) Prompt #55: _Go ahead, live a little_
> 
> ~~Saviour~~ Beta is [azuthlu ](https://azuthlu.tumblr.com/)~
> 
> I solemnly swear that I’m up to _good_ : I don't own the world of Harry Potter and I'm not getting paid for this work, which is for entertainment purpose only.
> 
> Title is from [_Ever Since New York_ by Harry Styles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aruv2nBqCBM). (Seriously, check it out. This kid is something else.)
> 
> Enjoy!

Harry returned home way after dinner time.

Unfortunately, his last case had required him and his Aurors to have a more thorough investigation, and him being the one in charge of his team always meant he was the last one to leave the Ministry.

He opened the door to the fancy house he had bought in Muggle East London a couple of years before, but immediately regretted it.

Inside, it seemed like a war had happened: cushions were spread everywhere on the floor, and one was even hanging from the chandelier, a bowl of pasta was laying forgotten on the carpet full of toys of every shape and colour, the big table in the living room was scattered with crayons, papers and, oh, was that blue paint spread on a chair?

By now, Harry could say he was accustomed to his house being treated like a big kindergarten, but  _ this _ was too much.

“Oh, here he comes from the battlefield,” a sarcastic voice announced from the stairs at his left.

Harry was suddenly nose to nose with a very angry, very pissed, very furious Draco. His blond hair was a real mess, he had blue paint on both his cheeks, and he was barefoot - Harry thought he could already hear his whining because _his toes were_ _cold_. He looked like he had gone through a tornado and barely survived.

“Hi, bab-”

“Don’t you dare say that word right now,” Draco stopped him, threatening him with a toothbrush in his hand. “Don’t pretend everything is okay, because it’s not,” he made clear, almost growling through his teeth, never lowering his gaze, flames coming out from his eyes.

“Care to explain?” Harry asked, hands coming up in a gesture of surrender. He knew that if something had  _ really _ not been okay, Draco would’ve sent a Patronus to him. Harry supposed this could’ve been just one of his tantrums – what a  _ lovely _ scenario to return home to.

“First, you’re late,” Draco accused him, pointing at his chest with the toothbrush.

(He reminded Harry of a desperate wife who’s tired of her husband forgetting about his duties, too occupied to drink pints with his friends at the town’s grill.

He tried not to laugh – if he had spoken those thoughts aloud that could’ve been his last move before  _ death _ .)

“Downside of being an Auror. Sorry ‘bout that,” he tried to apologize, but given Draco’s frown still present on his face, he knew he should’ve done better.

“I knew where I was going, Draco,” he added, hands remaining visible in the air. They had quit with the wand fighting a while back, but with Draco, one could never relax too much.

“Plus, I thought you could handle bedtime, since it’s been a while...”

“Well, you thought wrong!”

Draco threw up his arms in his typical, dramatic way to end arguments.

Actually, there was nothing ended here, so “What was the problem?” Harry pushed him.

Since he genuinely looked on the edge of a breakdown, it was clear that something had  _ really _ stressed Draco out.

The thought that it could’ve been because of him, because Harry had assumed Draco was ready to be left alone in this situation...

Harry followed him in the kitchen, where it seemed even more tragic: leftovers of the dinner were still on the table that Draco had prepared for three, and both the stove and the sink were brimming with pans.

“Your godson,” Draco exclaimed, while approaching the table and starting to clear the mess there, “is planning to stay up  _ all night _ , and there was nothing I could do to make him reason.”

Harry simply sighed, nodding.

It was  _ such _ a Teddy thing to do. He wouldn’t have expected less from the son of Tonks.

Teddy had officially moved in here after the death of Andromeda a month before, three years into Draco and Harry’s relationship. It was the most immediate solution to think about, with Harry being his godfather and the closest paternal figure the kid now had.

Obviously, Harry had been over the moon about the decision: he loved Teddy  _ so much _ , and he’d always imagined himself being a father one day. Plus, with Draco by his side, he’d felt as if it really could’ve been the start of something beautiful, so much like a  _ family _ .

“Who am I to deprive you of such a bless,” Draco had said with a smile, clearing approving Harry’s choice to welcome Teddy under their roof, and barely faking excitement from his side too.

However, since the beginning, things had started to being a little shaky between Draco and the little Teddy - who was 5, cute and rosy, extremely hyperactive and a real living  _ hell _ .

With Draco not being the most comfortable around kids, and Teddy still pretty shaken up from all the changes he had gone through, Harry had expected to face some problems - at least in the first couple of months or so, until everything would’ve finally worked out.

It still seemed they would’ve needed to work on it  _ a lot _ more.

Stupidly, Harry had thought Draco could’ve have managed a night alone with Teddy - clearly, it hadn’t worked.

It wasn’t like Harry was not aware of the little preference his godson had towards him: in fact, the very first day, Teddy had required with his pinched tone that it would’ve been Harry to pick him up from school, Harry to cook him things, Harry to help him change, Harry to read him bedtime stories, Harry to hug him when he was sad, Harry to play Scrabble with him.

Teddy had simply accepted Draco’s presence in the house, and since then, it was like a mutual, silent agreement had managed to make them live together without things turning weird.

Of course, since Teddy was only a kid and couldn’t hold to ransom two adults, Harry had talked to him, and he’d agreed on Draco cooking when Harry couldn’t make it home on time, Draco waiting for him outside the school on his free day during the week, and even Draco helping him picking up Spanish words from the telly - when everyone knew Draco didn’t particularly like watching people move in “a big, flat, weirdly coloured box”.

It had been a start, but Harry was proud of both of them for putting their personal hesitations aside and actually working together for the sake of their new family.

Obviously, that night Harry hadn’t considered too carefully the matter of bedtime.

Since things were going on pretty well, he had thought Draco wouldn’t have to face problems on that front. He had thought  _ wrong _ .

“I’ve faced worse thing than a kid throwing a tantrum,” Harry eventually commented, approaching Draco at the sink. Wrong move.

“Wow, Potter,  _ thank you _ for being so honest,” Draco spoke, tone so pinched and sarcastic it almost made Harry’s ears bleed.

_ Oh _ , Harry thought, realising too late.

“That wasn’t what I meant,” he added quickly, trying to fix the fixable.

“No, you meant it,” Draco bite back. “So, thank you  _ again _ for making me feel even shittier! Like, is it possible feeling so useless? I can’t even handle a stupid 7 year old, what will I ever do right in life?”

“Now, you’re being dramatic,” Harry exclaimed, finally touching Draco’s tense back.

Instantly, Draco melted against his hands, the stress accumulated is his shoulders lowering a little.

Harry let him steady his breath, gently manhandling him until his back crashed with Harry’s chest and they finally resumed a more intimate, relaxed position.

“First,” Harry murmured against his neck, where goosebumps appeared on the almost-white skin as he drew little circles with his nose along the tensed muscles. “Teddy is not stupid. Say you didn’t mean it.”

Draco chuckled a little in his arms. “Yeah,” he spoke quietly. “He’s the cleverest kid I’ve ever known, makes me doubt every piece of my childhood when I look at him.”

Harry nodded against the back of his blonde head. “Sometimes, he scares me, how much he’s a step forward from us, Jeez.”

Draco sighed against him, seeming way calmer and almost content, the bitter part of their argument already behind them.

“Secondly,” Harry continued, now tracing Draco’s hips with just his fingertips, “you’re not useless. You’re a fantastic Healer, and so many people get their lives saved because of you. Don’t put yourself down.”

It was true. Harry was so proud of what Draco had achieved during the years, and he’d never miss the chance to remind it to him.

“Teddy is just a bit different from everything you’ve faced since now,” Harry explained, hands never stopping the map of Draco’s body they were making, from his chest to his shoulders, massaging every knotted muscle. “It will be okay, we just have to give him some time to adjust, and to fully embrace our new parental status.”

Draco simply nodded at his words. He moved into Harry’s arms until he was able to rest his face in the juncture between Harry’s neck and shoulder.

“He knows you’re trying your best and you love him already,” Harry went on, heart filling with pride, when Draco shyly smiled at the mention of his feelings towards Teddy.

( _ Stubborn man _ , Harry thought, mentally shaking his head. He loved him  _ so _ much.)

“He just requires more attention, from  _ both _ of us,” Harry specified their mutual involvement, “because he’s special, and deserves only good things, even if life hasn’t been gentle with him.”

His tone lowered at the end. The atmosphere in the room changed, both of them now thinking of worse times back in the days, when not a single, damned thing had been easy for them.

They both suffered a lot, the three of them. Now that they were a family, they needed each other backs - and to try to create the best of the scenarios in which they could live happily and grow up together.

Minutes after, “He was angry because you weren’t coming,” Draco spoke for the first time. His voice was low, but his tone much steadier, a welcomed caress against Harry’s skin.

Harry hummed at the statement.

Again, he had failed.

He knew Teddy wouldn’t handle being left alone very well, if not previously accorded – his irrational fear as a reaction to the early loss of both his parents.

Harry wanted to punch himself. Hard.

“Hey,” Draco whispered, feeling Harry’s body going tense against him.

He took Harry’s face in his cold hands, making him look into his eyes, only needing a few seconds to understand what was going on in that mind of his.

“We’re still working on it,” Draco said, the hint at the “ _ both _ ” Harry had previously stressed now hanging in the air. “Tomorrow, we’ll do better.”

Harry breathed in, closing his eyes. Suddenly, he felt very tired, the long day at work and the avoided fight at home now weighing on his shoulders.

They remained like this for quite some times, both appreciating the warmth and the solidity of each other’s body like a vivid, comforting lifesaving.

Finally, “I’ll go talk to him,” Harry announced.

Draco whined softly into his robes, as if the thought of separating from Harry under the roof of  _ their own house _ was now barely acceptable.

Harry was kissing his cheek, already untangling himself from Draco’s embrace, when Teddy appeared at the door, hair the bluest it’d ever been, a couple of toys in his hands, and the weirdest expression on his face.

“Harry!” he exclaimed, toys hitting the ground and tiny arms already in the air, a gesture that indicated he wanted to be picked up.

“Hi, young man,” Harry greeted him, taking him from the floor and making him spin in the air. 

The room filled with both their laughs, while Draco was back at clearing the kitchen surface, obviously wanting to give them some private space.

After a minute of giggles, Harry crushed Teddy against his chest, squeezing his little body tightly, hoping it could be enough for an apology.

However, it wasn’t like Teddy to let things settle down without having a verbal confrontation before. Again, he was brighter than anyone else.

“Where have you been?” he asked, worry in his tone. “Why didn’t you say you weren’t coming? Why did you leave me here alone?”

Harry’s heart clenched at the questions.

“I’ve been silly,” he explained. “Being an Auror isn’t the easiest job in the world. You get to do a lot of fun stuff, sure, but sometimes, it can missing lunch or dinner with your family, even if you promised you’d be home on time.”

Teddy listened to him without interrupting, nodding slowly after his speech, seeming convinced.

“I want to become an Auror too!” he announced, arms moving in gestures of fighting.

Harry snorted along with Draco behind him.

“It’s a bit soon to decide that, boy. You’ll have all the time in world to make your choice,” Harry tried to calm him down.

“But I want to become like you,” Teddy complained, tiny hands squeezing Harry’s cheeks thought the beard he was letting grow.

Eventually, “That’s honourable from you,” Harry commented, taking Teddy’s both hands in one bigger of his.

He didn’t want to think about Teddy’s future job too much. There was Hogwarts first, and it alone seemed a way bigger problem: Harry knew Teddy’s intentions were honest, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about all the pranks and misbehaviours he would’ve been called to be reported of.

It would’ve been a hell of a ride, but at the bottom of his heart, Harry would’ve always been proud of his little man.

Teddy’s enthusiasm seemed restored. He asked to be put down, giving strange looks to Draco, who was now watching them with a grin on his face.

Eventually, “Can we watch the telly together?” he voiced, hands tugged on Harry’s robes.

“May,” Harry corrected him with a fond tone. He took a couple of seconds to fake an indecision, then “Draco said to me you didn’t want to go to bed, that you planned to stay up aaaall night. Is that true?” he attempted.

Teddy gazed Draco with an annoyed expression.

Honestly,  _ this kid _ .

“Yes,” he said aloud.

Then, he gripped at Harry’s robes stronger, an unspoken invitation for Harry to lower at his height. “But I did it only because you weren’t here to read to me before bed,” he added with a gentler tone, eyes to the ground as shame coloured his pink cheeks and made his lips tremble.

Immediately, Harry hugged him, scooping him up.

He looked at Draco, who nodded before sighing, and walked out of the kitchen with Teddy in his arms.

When he reached the sofa, he let the child down, sitting beside him.

“I think we need to sort this out,” he announced, barely a whisper. Teddy picked it up anyway, because he hid his face into a cushion, shaking it fast.

“Teddy,” Harry murmured, “Draco just wants to help, okay? He loves you as much as I do,” he began, a hand coming up to pet him on his head.

“Not true,” Teddy commented, already on the edge of tears. Okay, Harry should’ve had this conversation with him the very first day.

“Is true,” Harry insisted, forcing his voice a little. “He’s never been used to have kids around, never had siblings or cousins to play with either, so he’s still unsure most of the time. But it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. In fact, he cares  _ so much _ there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to keep you safe.”

Being honest with him was the only way to resolve the misunderstanding that was now threatening the stability in the house. As he had said before, Teddy was 5, and he was intelligent: he would’ve understood.

“Nanny once told me he didn’t like me, that’s why he never came to the house to play with me,” Teddy revealed, quite and almost scared – to say the wrong thing, to say the right thing.

Harry was shocked at first.

He didn’t recollect such behaviour from Andromeda. More probably, it would’ve been a conversation Teddy had picked it up from her that the kid had then melted into another context, shaping the words and the meanings in such a way it could’ve give him answers, even if they were bad and sad and impossible to accept.

Harry knew he had a wide imagination, and even if most of the times it was a benefit, he admitted it could lead to misunderstandings and such.

“Draco likes you so much, Teddy,” Harry whispered, voice gentle and almost cracking from how much he was being sincere. “That’s never been different”.

Finally, Teddy raised his bright eyes to him, incredulity and curiosity shaped in his features.

“As I said,” Harry continued, “he’s still figuring out how to cope around you. And if he hasn’t succeeded in it yet, it’s not because he doesn’t like you, okay?” Then, taking Teddy’s wet cheeks in his hands, “Don’t think you’re not loved or not wanted under this roof. Ever. You’re the most important thing in our lives now.”

Teddy listened to him almost in awe. Then, he quickly moved to bury himself in Harry’s chest, little body relaxing almost immediately.

“You have to help him a bit, too,” Harry suggested, hands moving on Teddy’s back. “Let him do things in my place when I’m not around, because you’re a priority, and when I can’t make things happen, most of the times Draco can.”

“But  _ you _ are my godfather,” Teddy insisted, more a whining than anything else.

“Yes, and Draco is, beyond your first cousin once removed, your godfather’s fiancée. If you don’t trust him already, trust  _ me _ when I say he would never leave you unhappy or uncared for.”

Teddy had finally calmed down. His little chest was moving slowly, a sign he wasn’t breathless anymore. Harry sighed, relieved.

He didn’t know how much time passed, before Teddy could speak again.

“Harry?” he voiced, almost a whisper.

“Yeah.”

“I care about Draco, too,” he revealed, words shaking and unsure. “A little,” he added, just to be sure he could make it clear he wasn’t totally okay with him yet.

Harry snorted against his now blondish hair. He loved the kid to the moon and back.

“I know,” he commented, squeezing him.

Unfortunately for Teddy, their effusions turned into a battle of tickling, which ended only when the kid seemed to have problems breathing again.

“So,” Teddy spoke, eyelids blinking fast, “am I allowed to stay up tonight?”

_ How  _ could Harry say no? He’d been a very good boy, after all. “Go ahead, little man,” he replied, fondness in his tone.

Teddy giggled, standing up on the sofa to hug him tight.

“But Harry,” he exclaimed, after a proper session of cuddles. “What does fiancée mean?”

 

 

***

 

 

“If he speaks with you about a ring, ignore him. It’s a thing between me and him, nothing to worry about.”

Harry entered the kitchen like a storm, hands sweating and voice cracking on the last words.

Draco was sat at the table, which was now perfectly tidied up as the rest of the room. He was reading  _ The Prophet _ of the morning, and he took off his glasses to look up at him, an eyebrow lifted.

“A ring?”

“He’s not going to say anything else,” Harry rushed to warn him, “and neither will I. Just wanted to tell you.” He wasn’t making any sense, and he knew he was looking a bit mad - eyes wide open, a dramatic drop of sweat running from his front head, down his nose and hiding into his beard. However, he hoped Draco would not ask any further question.

Just to be sure, he exited the room, returning to Teddy in the living room and absolutely not daring to look back.

 

 

***

 

 

He returned a couple of minutes after, much cooler after getting rid of his robes and worries.

“Teddy asked if you would come to see the telly with us?” he spoke, voice a little uncertain.

Draco lifted his gaze from the paper once again, an amusing expression shaping his pointy features. “Teddy?” he asked, just to be sure.

Harry nodded, scratching his beard.

Draco continued to look at him, traits changing from fun to seriousness to something else, more private and deeper.

“Stop looking at me like  _ that _ ,” Harry warned him, pointing at his figure.

“How am I looking at you?”

“Like you’re ready to jump out of your skin and eat me,” Harry sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Ha! Now that you mention it, eating you would be -”

“Teddy’s in the other room!”

“Never stopped us from having what we wanted,” Draco commented, putting his glasses on again and returning to his reading, knowing it wouldn’t have lead to anything.

They remained like that for a minute, Draco fake reading and more weighing Harry’s words, and Harry waiting for him to do the unavoidable.

“Let’s go watch that trash,” Draco announced finally, half joking, half being serious.

Harry gave him the time to stand up and walk to the door. Once close, he put one arm around Draco’s slim body and gave him a peck on the lips.

Draco deepened the kiss then, hands coming up to grip at Harry’s shoulders.

Harry felt like he was trying to communicate something through the exchange, but he couldn’t say what exactly. His lips tasted sweet like the tea he usually drank after dinner, and his mouth opened up from time to time to give tiny moans of approval. However, there was something in the way he was breathing, in the sparkle his grey eyes, in the tight grip he had on Harry’s body that clearly meant some serious thought was crowding his mind.

When they separated, “Okay?” Harry asked, barely a whisper.

Draco blinked fast. He eyed Harry’s face for a second, and then spoke, obviously avoiding the real matter. “Have I already said to you how much your beard makes me hard?”

 

 

***

 

 

Later that night, Harry returned to the living room after a long Floo call in which he had to give a detailed report to the Ministry of Magic.

He expected to see Draco and Teddy still watching the Shrek cartoon the kid had put on.

However, the credits were already showing, and to Harry’s surprise, Teddy, who had complained just a little when Harry had to leave the room almost an hour before, was now sleeping over Draco’s body, head crooked into his neck, mouth sucking at his thumb.

Draco was asleep too, with an hand possessively thrown up to squeeze the kid against himself, little puffs coming out from his nose and tickling at Teddy’s now fully blond hair.

Harry’s heart clenched.

He moved to pick a blanket up from the chair and drop it on the pair of them, cautious to wrap Draco’s feet in it - he  _ really  _ didn’t want him to feel cold.

Then, he landed a kiss to Teddy’s front head.

If an hour passed, before he could find the courage to wake them up, well. No one would've blamed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> My hand slipped a little and then this happened... Oops! (Honestly? I enjoyed every second of writing this verse :D Stay tuned for more fluff content :D)
> 
> Comments and kudos are genuinely accepted ❤
> 
> Let's chat on [Tumblr](https://sempre--me.tumblr.com/)!


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